Social Skills for Kids

Free DIR/ Floortime Parent Training in San Jose, CA

I know it's short notice, but this training sounded so interesting I'm posting it here. The Creekside School in San Jose, California is offer a free one day DIR/Floortime workshop for parents, tomorrow, 2/28/09. They'll have speakers from ICDL, Creekside and other organizations. DIR/Floortime is Standley Greenspan's program which I've written about several times on this blog. Please check out their website for more info.

Online Conference for Floortime/DIR

Floortime/DIR is Stanley Greenspan’s Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based Model for the treatment of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disorders. The method teaches a way to assess and interact with children who may not be able to connect in more traditional ways. The online Floortime/DIR conference is starting in April and registration is open now. It’s open to both professionals and parents.

I attended this online conference last year, and I was really pleased with the material presented. Greenspan’s books are also packed with information, but the online conference gave access to a number of video tapes of Dr. Greenspan and other professionals working with families. The tapes could be viewed repeatedly, in order to really capture the subtleties of Greenspan’s interventions. After instruction, the parents were able to change their interactions with their children and the viewer could see the results of these changes. Greenspan then commented on the tapes.

There was also a forum for those who want to ask questions or connect with others attending the conference. Many local groups, including one here in the San Francisco Bay area, formed after the conference.

DIR/Floortime can be used by families all the time, for every interaction with their children, but it can also just be a way for parents to rethink how to engage their autistic kids. Because parents are the ones working with the kids, it can be quite a bit less expensive than other interventions, and of course, the intervention can be quite frequent, since parents get to be with their kids on a daily basis.

Check out this link to the conference if you’re interested, and thanks to reader floortimerepository@gmail.com for the comment that directed me to the registration site.

Oprah, Jenny McCarthy, and Autism

Like most middle aged American women, I’m a big fan of  Oprah. Her shows are inspiring, informative and cover every topic. I read her magazine cover to cover. That’s why it’s so frustrating to watch Oprah give Jenny McCarthy free rein to discuss everything related to autism. True, Jenny is the mom of a boy who’s been diagnosed with autism. I don’t object to hearing her share her experiences of raising her son. But this doesn’t mean that Jenny is suddenly an expert in epidemology, medical science, vaccine studies, or even the divorce rate of parents with autistic kids.

I missed the original September broadcast of Jenny McCarthy discussing her Warrior Mother book on Oprah, but I watched the rerun last week. Lots of emotion, big statements, but little respect for facts or science. Autism is a complicated issue. Vaccines are not only a complicated issue but an issue that’s critical to our health. Couldn’t Oprah present us with a balanced, fact based discussion of autism and vaccines?

After this show aired, the blog LeftBrainRightBrain posted a link from Every Child by Two. This organization is asking Oprah fans to contact the Oprah website directly and request a more balanced vaccine show. You can go to Oprah directly and submit your request. Better yet, read the full post on LeftBrainRightBrain.

Did you wonder about Jenny’s 90% divorce rate statement? I can’t find a study that shows that rate. But I did find a more moderate discussion of the topic, along with a referenced study, on About.com/autism.

Parents deserve the right to make decisions based on facts and science, not hype from entertainers.